Wig with detachable hairpieces



Feb. 17, 1970 N. v. YOUNG, JR

WIG WITH DETACHABLE HAIRPIECES 2 ShetsSheet 1 Filed Nov. 8, 1967 llo R m E V m NEAL V. YOUNG JR.

ATTORNEY N. v. YOUNG, JR WIG WITH DETAcHABLELHAIRPI'E cEs Feb. 17,1970

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Nov. 8, 1967 INVENTOR. NEAL V. YOUNG ,JR.

ATTORNEY 3,495,603 WIG WITH DETACHABLE HAIRPIECES Neal V. Young, Jr., 6275 Radiant Drive,

San Jose, Calif. 95123 Filed Nov. 8, 1967, Ser. No. 681,394 Int. Cl. A41g 3/00 US. Cl. 13253 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates in general to head coverings, and more particularly to a device capable for use either as a full wig or as one or more supplemental hairpieces.

Many wearers of wigs desire to have hairpieces for supplemental use with their natural hair at times when the wig is not worn. Heretofore, it has been necessary for such a wearer to purchase said hairpieces in addition to the wig at considerable expense.

I have invented a new wig structure in which portions of the wig may be removed and used as such supplemental hairpieces. Generally speaking, this is accomplished by providing bald portions on the wig skull cap of such size that the backing members of the supplemental hairpieces can be detachably secured to said bald portions,

The various features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon a consideration of the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a wig in accordance with the present invention positioned on a wearers head;

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of a simplified form of the wig of FIGURE 1 positioned on a wearers head and illustrating the formation of a bald attachment por-. tion on the wig skull cap;

FIGURE 3 is an exploded perspective view of the wig of FIGURE 1 illustrating the manner of attachment of the supplemental hairpieces; and 1 FIGURE 4 is a partially broken-away, exploded perspective view of the wig of FIGURE 1 illustrating further the manner of attachment of the supplemental hairpieces, and also illustrating the manner in which the hair strands are stitched to the wig skull cap.

In the drawings, a wig in accordance with the present invention includes a conventional skull cap 11 made, for example, of nylon netting. Strands of hair are attached to the skull cap 11 in a conventional, evenlydistributed manner, as by stitching the ends of said strands along a plurality of seams 12 (see the broken-away portion of FIGURE 4). In the illustrated embodiment, the seams 12 are substantially elliptically shaped with a common focus 13 located at the crown of the skull cap 11. For clarity of illustration, only a few of the seams are shown. Typically the average spacing between the seams 12 is about one-quarter of an inch so that the hair has an evenly-distributed natural appearance. 1 L

The strands of hair may be first sewn into a weft and then stitched along the seams 12 in the manner of a socalled machine-made wig or alternatively, the hair strands may be sewn directly onto the skull cap netting 11 in the manner of a so-called hand-tied wig.

United States PatentO lice 3,495,603 Patented Feb. 17 1970 In accordance \m'th the present invention, one or more small portions, such as 11a, 11b and 110,015 the skull cap 11 are left baldso as to permit the attachment thereto of one or more supplementary hairpieces, such as hair pieces 15, 16 and 17. Each of these hairpieces has a respective backing member 15a, 16b and 170, which substantially conforms in shape to the bald portions 11a, 11b and 11c, respectively, of the skull cap 11. The hairpiece backing members may, for example, be made of nylon netting and strands of hair are attached to the top thereof in a conventional manner, for example by seams similar to those used for the skull cap 11.

In a simple embodiment of the present invention, the wig 10 is prepared in the conventional manner by first stitching strands of hair around the bottom of the skull cap 11 and then working up along the seams 12 towards the crown point 13. However, as shown in FIGURE 2, the stitching is terminated short of the crown point 13 in order to leave the bald portion 11a.

Suitable means are provided for detachably securing the hairpiece base 11a to the bald portion 11a of the skull cap. A suitable device for this purpose comprises one or more fastening strips 20 sewn to the skull cap portion 11a, and one or more strips 21 sewn in confronting relationship thereto on the bottom of the hairpiece backing member 15a. In a suitable commercially-available type of fastening strip, the outer surface of one of each pair of confronting strips 20, 21 contains a large number of nylon hooks and the outer surface of the other strip contains a large number of threaded loops, whereby said confronting surfaces become entangled and adhere strongly when pressed together, and yet may be readily separated by manually pulling them apart. In a typical embodiment, the bald portion 11a and the conforming backing member 15a are both in the form of an ellipse with a major axis of 3% inches and a minor axis of 2% inches. The hairpiece 15 is in a form usually referred to as a wiglet.

In more complex embodiments of the present invention, additional bald portions such as 11b and are provided on the skull cap 11, on which are detachably secured the backing members 16b and 17c of the additional hairpieces 16 and 17, respectively. In the illustrative embodiment, the hairpiece 16 is in a form usually referred to as a bang and the hairpiece 17 is in a form usually referred to as a cascade. As shown, the hairpiece backing members 16b and are secured to the respective skull cap portions 11b and 11c by conventional pairs of snaps 30 and 31. It will be understood, however, that any conventional detachable fastening means, including strips such as 21, 22, may be used with respect to any of the hairpieces.

It is an important aspect of the present invention that each of the detachable hairpieces is suitable for use, upon being detached, in a conventional manner as a supplement to the 'wearers natural hair arrangement. The particular form of hairpieces shown as 15, 1-6 and 17 would have relatively small backing members 15a, 16a and 17a and associated skull cap bald portions 11a, 11b and 110, generally less than five inches in maximum transverse dimension. Another form of hairpiece which may be used in accordance with the present invention is a so-called fall which includes strands typically in the range of 12 inches to 30 inches for creating a long hair appearance and which sometimes has a backing member somewhat larger than five inches in maximum transverse dimension.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. A wig comprising: a skull cap having strands of hair distributed over all but at least one portion of the top thereof to thereby form a wig with hair missing from said portion-of said skull cp; 1 least one hairpiece; and

means -fordetachably securing said -hairpiece on top of i said skull cap portion.

2. A wig according to claim 1 wherein said hairpiece has a backingmember which conforms in shape tosaid skull cap portion, and said, securing means comprises means for detachably; securingsaid backing member to said skull cap-portion. u 

